After the Storm
by Sk8erGrl
Summary: I was hoping it would be you. Veronica and her late night visitor.


**After the Storm**

**Pairing/Character:** LoVe  
**Summary:** "I was hoping it would be you." Veronica and her late night visitor.  
**Spoilers/Warnings:** Entire Season 1

**Author's Note:** This is the first _Veronica Mars_ fanfic that I've ever written, but I was inspired after the fifth time I watched LitB and sat there trying to decide who was at the door waiting for Veronica. I'm not sure whether this is going to be a standalone fic or not yet, we'll just see where my muse leads me. Please comment and tell me what you think.

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"I was hoping it would be you," her voice was soft, warm and loving as she gently tilted her head to the side, a patented Veronica Mars move.

A light breeze blew around them, neither of them making a move to say anything. The silence between them was nothing more than just that, silence. There was no tension or unbridled hate, but there was no comfort or understanding either. It was a deadly silence that stood between them, and it was slowly killing both of them to just stand there staring at each other.

Finally, Veronica took a step forward. Inhaling deeply, her eyes never left his. Her small hand reached towards him, hesitating slightly before touching his arm delicately. She spoke slowly and cautiously, "Logan…"

At the sound of his name on her lips, Logan recoiled. Wrapping his brown suede jacket tighter around himself, he averted his eyes, refusing to look directly at her. The worry and hurt evident, and Veronica knew that it wasn't for his father but for her. He's broken, and she can't help but blame herself.

"Logan, please…" she tried again, trying to get him to look back at her.

"Did he do that to you?" he gestured with his hand towards the bruise on her face from when Aaron had punched her, glancing ever so briefly at her.

"Your dad?" immediately she regretted uttering that phrase when she saw his eyes flash with anger at the term, "Yeah."

"Bastard," he muttered his tone bitter and angry as was to be expected.

Veronica reached out again, not hesitating this time and touched his arm gently, forcing him to look at her. For brief seconds, the two just started at each other, thousands of words being said without one actual word, thousands of emotions overwhelming them both. It was confusing. It was heartbreaking.

"Logan, I'm so sorry," tears welled up in her eyes, but she refused to let even just one of them fall. She knew the words were cliché, but they were the only words she could find to express how she felt to him.

"You were just doing what you do," Logan shrugged, the bitterness still present in his tone, "Solve the mystery no matter who you bring down at the same time."

She blinked.

_Okay Logan, I deserved that. After all, I did turn you over to the police right after finding out you lied about your alibi. _

"I should've talked to you," she confessed, "I should've asked you what happened after Beaver told me, but I jumped to conclusions after I found…"

"The camera? After you found it and bolted from the pool house?" he prodded, "You thought I was using you for some sex-and-murder show? I loved Lilly, Veronica!"

"I know!" It was becoming increasingly more difficult to stop the tears from escaping after the emotional night she'd just had. She didn't want to break down in front of him though, not him.

"I would never have hurt her," his words were cold and hurt, "I would never have hurt you!"

"I was just so determined to find out what happed to Lilly. I needed to find out what happened, and you looked like the best suspect…"she trailed, "I didn't want to believe it. I didn't want it to be you."

"What about Duncan, Veronica?" Logan spat, "I don't remember you turning him into the police when you thought he murdered Lilly in one of his episodes!"

"Logan…"

"No, Saint Duncan could never have really killed Lilly. Must've been Logan," his voice was rising slightly.

"I went looking for your letter!" Veronica said defensively, her voice choking with tears, "I didn't want to believe you did it. I wanted to trust you! I do trust you!"

"Too little, too late," Logan shrugged, turning on his heels. He headed away from apartment 110, away from her. He didn't look back. Refused to. No matter how much he wanted to. No matter how much Veronica willed him to come back to her.

Slowly, as she watched his back, as she watched him leave her, she sunk down to the floor. Leaning against the wall beside her door, she hugged her knees and let the tears stream freely down her face. Watching him leave her, she couldn't help but feel her heart break into a million pieces for the second time since this whole thing had started.

_I finally solve the Lilly Kane murder, but risked everything good that has come into my life since this began. I wrecked my relationship with Logan. All for closure. I hope it was worth it. Aaron Echolls is going to fry for this._

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Logan Echolls slammed the door to his X-Terra that sat outside of Veronica's apartment complex. He doesn't know why he came here in the first place, to add salt to his fresh wounds perhaps. To make sure Veronica was okay, even though he shouldn't care. She stabbed him in the back, broke his heart, turned him over to the police and blamed him for killing Lilly.

He grabbed his bottle of Jack Daniels and took a long sip; closing his eyes and letting the alcohol dull his pain. He should've jumped off the Coronado Bridge when he had the chance, but Weevil and his gang of PCH Bikers had come and stop him from doing the deed. They had found out about Aaron right when they were about beat his ass up and forced him to go home. Weevil had even driven.

What had possessed him to leave the safe confines of his home and go to see Veronica at 3:07 in the morning he would never know or understand. After all, he should've known that this was how it was going to turn out. He would be back in his car, drinking and trying to dull the pain.

_"God Logan, as if we both don't know what you're doing here,"_ there she was, Lilly Kane in all her glory sitting in the passenger's seat. She wore her pep squad uniform, blonde hair falling over her shoulders, and her forehead bashed in. Just the way she was in the last seconds of her life.

"Lilly…" he choked on her name, shocked.

_"Duh! Come on Lover, you haven't forgotten me already have you?"_ Lilly rolled her eyes at him, she had a glow to her, and Logan couldn't take his eyes off her, _"Now can we move on so **I** can finally move on? You people are seriously starting to bore me." _

"You were screwing my dad," Logan's emotions were running overboard. He hardly realized that he was probably going crazy, talking to his dead girlfriend. Everything was just too much though, seeing her, hearing her speak again.

_"You're in love with my best friend now, so let's just call it even Lover," _Lilly offered with a sly smile, _"Now would you just go and tell her. We both know that Veronica was just being Veronica." _Lilly shook her head; _"She's had a tough time trying to fill in my shoes this year. After all, there can only be one me."_

"I loved you," Logan cried.

_"We were over Logan," _Lilly shrugged_, "You said it in that letter, which I burned by the way. You love Veronica now, and that's the way things have to be. I always wanted to die young, beautiful and fabulous."_

In a flash, Lilly was gone faster than she had appeared and Logan was once again alone in his car. He stared ahead of him, barely able to see Veronica still sitting outside of her apartment looking as broken as he felt now. Glancing into his review mirror, Logan worked up his courage and got out of the car, walking back towards her again.

When he was standing in front of her, she looked up. Fresh tears glistened in her eyes, an unspoken question on her lips as she searched him for answers. In response to what he knew she wanted to ask, he reached forward to take her hand. Feeling her warm touch, he pulled her to her feet.

Taking a step closer to her, he brushed her hair out of her face with his hand, letting it stay there and hold her face. He leaned in and whispered, "I love you."

In an instant, her body was pressed against his as their lips met in a passionate kiss. A kiss he'd been longing to feel again since the wreckage had first began. One hand rested on her hip, never wanting to let her go. Never wanting to lose her again. Her mouth tasted of mint and salt tears as their tongues danced together.

Breaking the kiss, Logan placed another one on her forehead and looked down at her with the same expression he had after their first kiss. He wanted to know how she felt, wanted to know that he wasn't going to lose her again. There was no way he could take losing her again, not with his life crumbling around him. Not with the trial that was sure to follow his father's arrest. The press that would be at his door, the questions, the insinuations, everything about his family coming to light in the eyes of the world.

"I love you too," she assured him, and then rested her head on his chest, taking in his smell, memorizing it.

Maybe everything would be all right after all. He had her, and right now that was all he needed. She was the reason he had been on the bridge earlier, he had found his reason to live and he thought he had lost it. Veronica Mars. It was hard to believe that she had almost slipped out of his life like Lilly had. Right then and there, he promised that he would never let anything happen to her.

No one was ever going to hurt her.


End file.
